Dictionaries. As an old stager,.I thought some of the newcomers might find my experience useful, No doubt others have different ideas.
The first dictionary I turn to is usually
Oxford beginners Chinese dictionary. This is reasonably comprehensive; although I wish it were a little more so, especially the Chinese to English part. It gives quite a few example sentences using the word that you are looking up: a very useful feature. (NB It used to be called the Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary – they added some cultural material and changed the name). I think this is the best dictionary to start with.

If that doesn’t work I usually turn to

Langenscheidt Pocket dictionary: Chinese. This is more comprehensive, especially Chinese to English, is easy to read but does not have much in the way of example sentences. I find it useful.

Then there are two dictionaries that are about equally useful
Collins Chinese Dictionary 2nd edition (very much better than the first edition)
Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary
Both are more comprehensive than the Beginners dictionary and give example sentences. For example, to illustrate one use of the word “least”, the Collins dictionary has a translation of the very useful sentence “I spotted my ex-wife, at least I thought I did”. However, these examples are often given as pairs of English/Chinese character sentences without the corresponding pinyin version. This makes them much more difficult to use. I only use these dictionaries if I can’t find what I want elsewhere.

However, some versions of the Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary come with an additional electronic dictionary that I have found enormously useful (Beware, it is not always sold with the dictionary). You can enter English, pinyin or Chinese characters and it will return all three, together with useful combinations. Also, you can click on any character and listen to the pronunciation of it. Well worth having.

There are many more advanced, and usually more expensive, dictionaries. But the above are perfectly adequate for beginners.